Thermal Gravimetric Analysis of Fiber Glass

Aluminized E-glass fiber reinforced polyvinyl alcohol composites, originally formulated for enhanced electrical shielding and thermal properties were evaluated in terms of their thermal performance. The role of temperature increase required for degradation of these specimens analyzed using a TGA ( thermogravimetric analyzer). The different samples were heated from surrounding temperature to 500 1C at a heating rate of 20 1C/min. The various specimens were decomposed by using dry nitrogen (N2) at a flow rate of 40 ml/min to yield solid material and gases. These aluminized E-glass composites were compared with the unreinforced composite and unmetallised E-glass. During increase of temperature the major weight loss were noted between 200 and 400 1C. The unreinforced polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) had lost a more weight loss, 1.25%/1C, occurring at 360 1C. For the unmetallised and aluminized E-glass composites, the maximum rate of weight loss was 0.55 and 0.34%/1C, respectively. Experimental results show the degradation of the aluminized E-glass composites obtained from TGA tests is higher compared to those of unmetallised E-glass fibre and unreinforced polyester composite. This improvement is correlated to the aluminum coating.